[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 27 (Monday, July 7, 1997)]
[Pages 999-1000]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7011--To Implement the World Trade Organization Ministerial 
Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products and the 
Agreement on Distilled Spirits

June 30, 1997

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    1. On December 13, 1996, the first Ministerial Meeting of the World 
Trade Organization (``the WTO'') issued a Declaration On Trade In 
Information Technology Products (``the ITA''), which established a 
framework for expanding world trade in information technology products 
and enhancing market access opportunities for such products. To 
implement that declaration, 42 WTO members and governments in the 
process of acceding to the WTO agreed to eliminate duties on information 
technology products. These products encompass computers and computer 
equipment, semiconductors and integrated circuits, computer software 
products, telecommunications equipment, semiconductor manufacturing 
equipment, and computer-based analytical instruments. The participants 
further agreed on the common objective of achieving, where appropriate, 
a common classification of such goods for tariff purposes within the 
existing nomenclature of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding 
System (HS), and on a possible future joint suggestion to the World 
Customs Organization to update existing HS nomenclature or to otherwise 
remedy any divergence in classification of such goods or in 
interpretation of the HS nomenclature.
    2. The United States and the European Union, on behalf of its 15 
member states, also reached agreement at the WTO Ministerial Meeting on 
the elimination of duties on certain distilled spirits.
    3. Section 111(b) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) (19 
U.S.C. 5321(b)) authorizes the President to proclaim the modification of 
any duty or staged rate reduction of any duty set forth in Schedule XX 
for products in tariff categories that were the subject of reciprocal 
duty elimination or harmonization negotiations during the Uruguay Round, 
if the United States agrees to such action in a multilateral negotiation 
under the auspices of the WTO and after compliance with the requirements 
of section 115 of the URAA (19 U.S.C. 3524). The products covered by the 
ITA and the Agreement on Distilled Spirits were the subject of 
reciprocal duty elimination negotiations during the Uruguay Round.
    4. Accordingly, pursuant to section 111(b) of the URAA, I have 
determined to proclaim modifications in the tariff categories and rates 
of duty set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (``the HTS''), as 
set forth in the Annexes to this proclamation.
    5. Proclamation 6763 of December 23, 1994, implemented the tariff 
and other customs treatment resulting from the Uruguay Round of 
multilateral trade negotiations, as set forth in Schedule XX, with 
respect to the United States. Proclamation 6641 of December 15, 1993, 
implemented the North American Free Trade Agreement (``the NAFTA'') with 
respect to the United States and incorporated in the HTS the tariff 
modifications and rules of origin necessary or appropriate to carry out 
or apply the NAFTA. Certain tariff provisions established by these 
proclamations, including staged reductions in rates of duty, and certain 
NAFTA rules of origin must be modified in light of the implementation of 
the ITA, to ensure that the previously proclaimed tariff and other 
customs treatment will be continued, and to take into account the tariff 
treatment provided for in the ITA. Accordingly, I have determined to 
modify the HTS in order to continue or provide such tariff and other 
customs treatment.
    6. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (``the 1974 
Act'') (19 U.S.C. 2483), authorizes the President to embody in the HTS 
the substance of the relevant provisions of that Act, and of other acts 
affecting import treatment, and actions thereunder, including removal, 
modification, continuance, or imposition of any rate of duty or other 
import restriction.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including but 
not limited

[[Page 1000]]

to section 111(b) of the URAA and section 604 of the 1974 Act, do hereby 
proclaim:
    (1) In order to provide for the immediate or staged elimination of 
duties on the information technology products covered by the ITA and on 
certain distilled spirits, and to make conforming changes in other 
provisions, the HTS is modified as set forth in the Annexes to this 
proclamation.
    (2) The modifications to the HTS made by this proclamation shall be 
effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for 
consumption, on or after the dates specified in the Annexes to this 
proclamation.
    (3) All provisions of previous proclamations and Executive orders 
that are inconsistent with the actions taken in this proclamation are 
superseded to the extent of such inconsistency.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day 
of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, and 
of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-first.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:07 a.m., July 1, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on July 2.